This is a proposal to study in Taiwan key issues in theories of family and demographic transformation. Our objectives are to evaluate three general topics in demographic and family theory: (1) the influence of economic and social change on family structure and relationships; (2) the consequences of economic, social, and family change on fertility; (3) the impact of family size and spacing on subsequent family well-being. The starting point of our research is that family and household are key organizational units in pretransition societies. The role of the family in social organization is transformed with the developing wage economy, expanding education, and developing nonfamilial living arrangements. These transformations, in turn, modify relationships within and between families and alter the process and substance of decisions about marriage and childbearing. Our data for Taiwan come from six island-wide surveys conducted during the two decades from 1965 through 1986, a period of rapid social, economic, and demographic change. The first five surveys interviewed currently married women of reproductive ages, while the 1986 survey included ever-married women. The surveys contain a wide range of family and demographic data, including information for the respondent's social, economic, demographic, and familial circumstances at the time of the interview, her attitudes, values and expectations about family size and demographic behavior, and rich data for her own and her husband's family and demographic histories. These surveys will be integrated with information about the local geographical areas where respondents have resided to allow examination of both community and individual effects on family and demographic behavior. These data, thus, represent and extensive time series covering the periods of most rapid family and demographic transition in Taiwan. Four major areas of inquiry drive our study: (1) understanding of the time trends in family and demographic behavior in Taiwan; (2) the influences of experiences and opportunities outside the family during childhood and the young adult years on subsequent family experiences; (3) the impact of nonfamilial experiences and family organization on fertility behavior; (4) the consequences of family and demographic behavior upon sequent individual and family well-being. This study is unique to the extent that it is able to combine a well-developed theoretical position with appropriate data for elucidating these issues.
